As computer systems throughout the world are becoming increasingly connected via the Internet, the uses for the Internet are similarly expanding. One rapidly growing use of the Internet is for electronic commerce, where merchants make goods and/or services available for purchase “on-line” via the Internet. Such purchases may be delivered via the Internet (e.g., software downloaded from the merchant to the purchaser's computer) or alternatively delivered via more traditional in-person routes (e.g., mailing a product using the postal service).
Although the types and sources of goods and/or services available for purchase on-line have increased, difficulties have been encountered in providing a way for users to pay for these purchases. One solution is to provide an electronic wallet for each user where he or she can store account and address information for multiple different types of accounts, such as credit cards, debit cards, gift certificates, rebates, etc. One such solution is described in co-pending application Ser. No. 09/675,466, entitled “Integrating Payment accounts And An Electronic Wallet”, to Arnold Blinn, Joseph Coco, and Greg Marks.
However, problems can be encountered when using electronic wallets because there is typically little or no ability to restrict the usage of accounts identified in the wallet. While a credit card stored in a wallet could be spent at any location that accepts this credit card, it may be desirable for other types of accounts to be restricted in how they can be spent. It would be desirable, for example, for a gift certificate account to be redeemable only at a restricted set of merchants. If the gift certificate account is a new payment account mechanism this restriction can be built into the protocol for redemption of the gift certificate. However, a gift certificate account may be based on a credit card network (e.g. Visa®) and credit card account numbering format (e.g., based on a Visa® card format). Although the giver of the gift certificate may wish that the recipient use the gift certificate at only certain merchants, if the gift certificate is based on the Visa® account number format there is typically nothing preventing the recipient from using the gift certificate anywhere that a Visa® card is accepted.
The invention described below addresses these disadvantages, providing restricted usage of payment accounts.